Hieromonk NIKANDR (PINCHUK), ROCOR(A) (Verkhoturye, Sverdlovsk Oblast)

Nikandr (Pinchuk) – the rector of the St Simeon of Verkhoturye parish of the Russian Orthodox Church Outside Russia (of Agathangel).

On 30 March 2022, he published a post on the VK social network, which the linguistic assessment deemed to be violating the law on discrediting the Armed Forces of the Russian Federation. In this post, Hieromonk Nikandr characterised the actions of the Russian army as annexationist, which contradicted the position of the Ministry of Defense. The hieromonk has deleted the post and hist page on VK.

On 14 March 2022, the Verkhoturye district court fined the priest 35,000 Russian rubles under art. 20.3.3 of the Code of Administrative Offenses. Based on screenshots of his social media, a criminal case was initiated against him under part 1 of art. 280.3 of the Criminal Code of the Russian Federation on 29 June 2022; the priest faces imprisonment for up to six months. While studying the materials of the criminal case, hieromonk Nikandr noticed that complaints against him were made by the eparchial department of the Yekaterinburg eparchy of the Russian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate and the local Verkhoturye monastery.

The priest referred to the war in Ukraine as a ‘mortal sin‘ and ‘crime‘. He professed his innocence: «I am a priest and I have the right to condemn evil, regardless of who commits it, and the political situation.»

On 1 July 2022, his house was searched and he was detained for questioning by the Investigative Committee. On 17 October 2022, a trial took place in regard to the repeated discrediting of the army (article 280.3 of the Criminal Code). The priest was fined 100,000 Russian rubles. He was charged with posting an already deleted social media post on 30 March, where the cleric wrote about the war of conquest waged by Russia, as well as about demons in power.

On 17 October 2025, it became known that Pinchuk had been detained by Russian security forces. Searches were conducted at his home. According to the investigation, Pinchuk had expressed respect on social media for the founder of the Russian Volunteer Corps, a military formation within the Armed Forces of Ukraine, by liking one of his posts. On the same day, the Verkhoturye City Court granted the investigators’ motion to place the priest in pre-trial detention. On 11 March 2026, it became known that the clergyman had been tried under Article 205, Part 2 of the Russian Criminal Code and sentenced to five and a half years’ imprisonment.